Blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts are just a few ways to get your word out online

Mark Boersma, president, Synergy Solutions Inc.

As published in Scotsman Guide's Residential Edition, September 2005.

-Most people who have opened a magazine or newspaper in the past year know that blogs, RSS feeds, Internet-radio stations and podcasts are all the rage. But are these just for kids to listen to music and communicate with their friends? Absolutely not.

There are plenty of ways mortgage originators and other sales professionals can drastically increase their income using the leveraging power of the Internet.

What’s at stake
An Internet revolution is pushing traditional businesses toward more high-tech, innovative marketing systems. Here’s how they work:

• Blogs: A blog is an online diary or “log” of posted musings. Millions of Americans write blogs on topics such as politics, pets and the mortgage industry. They often are created for free, and they can be for personal use or can be a forum for others’ commentary. On your business blog, you can write about anything, from your company to your life.
• RSS: The acronym stands for “Rich Site Summary,” or in tech circles, “Really Simple Syndication.” It’s a small programming script that allows people to use a news-syndication program to add information to their Web sites or blogs. RSS feeds take more technological know-how than blogs, but there are plenty of sites to guide you. As e-mail marketing battles spam, RSS presents an alternative as purely permission-based marketing. If your customers sign up, they are guaranteed to receive the updates.

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